Lane Kiffin was the object of Al Davis' firing, not the subject

Former Oakland Raiders receiver Tim Brown recently commented on Raiders' owner Al Davis firing youthful coach Lane Kiffin in mid season with much hullabaloo (ruckus, uproar).


"It's Al's ball, and he can play with whoever he wants to play with. And, if he chooses not to play with Lane anymore, that's just the way it's going to be."

Tim meant to say whomever. Both whoever and whomever are personal pronouns. With respect to case, how they work in sentences as subject or object, whomever is used in the objective case. In this instance, it would serve as the object of the preposition "with."

Observation on the idiomatic expression "play with..." Yes, Davis seems to play with his coaches more than his players seem to play for him.

CNN's Rick Sanchez goes off the road on pronoun use

CNN's On the Road "starring" Rick Sanchez might consider firing his "pit crew." In Philadelphia recently to cover the primary face-off between Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a graphic expressed the following query pointed to voter in the City of Brotherly Love:

Who's voting for who?

The graphic should have read: Who's voting for whom? Objective case pronouns needed after prepositions. The pronoun serves as the object of the preposition.

Given Sanchez' quirky stunts in order to gain viewers, it comes as little surprise that the use of language will be equally quirky.

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Rick Neuheisel has a "good vibe" but it's the wrong case

In pursuing (and eventually landing) defensive specialist assistant coach DeWayne Walker on his UCLA football staff, recently hired head coach Rick Neuheisel stated he had "a good vibe" after talking with Walker. Unfortunately, coach Neuheisel's vibe did not get the pronoun case right. The sentence in question:

"The goal is for he and I to lock arms and do this together."

The compound subject "he and I" follows a preposition. Odd as it may sound, him and me is used as the objective case subject in its own clause.

The infinitive, "to lock" is of interest. Infinitives may be used as adverbs, and as such will express themselves as adverbs by showing: condition, degree (or comparison), manner, reason, purpose, or result. We are focusing on the use of the infinitive of purpose in Coach Neuheisel's sentence: to lock arms... How will "we" do this?" By locking arms. "How" is an adverb question, "to lock arms" answers the adverb question. Without the preposition "for," and with syntax rearranged, a correction variation would be:

He and I will do this together by locking arms, this is our goal.

The rule: The infinitive of purpose is frequently the object of the preposition for and has a regular objective-case subject. (Harper's English Grammar, John B. Opdycke). Thus, Coach Neuheisel should have said:

The goal is for him and me to lock arms and do this together.